Ecclesiastes 3:5

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;a time to embrace and a time to avoid embracing;

Hebrew Names Version
A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones together; A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;

King James Version
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

English Standard Version
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

New American Standard Bible
A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.

New Century Version
There is a time to throw away stones and a time to gather them. There is a time to hug and a time not to hug.

Amplified Bible
A time to throw away stones and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing.

World English Bible
A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones together; A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;

Geneva Bible (1587)
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones: a time to embrace, and a time to be farre from embracing.

Legacy Standard Bible
A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.

Berean Standard Bible
a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

Contemporary English Version
for throwing stones and gathering stones, embracing and parting.

Complete Jewish Bible
a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

Darby Translation
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

Easy-to-Read Version
There is a time to throw weapons down and a time to pick them up. There is a time to hug someone and a time to stop holding so tightly.

George Lamsa Translation
A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;

Good News Translation
the time for making love and the time for not making love, the time for kissing and the time for not kissing.

Lexham English Bible
a time to throw away stones and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;

Literal Translation
a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
A tyme to cast awaye stones, and a tyme to gather stones together: A tyme to enbrace, & a tyme to refrayne from enbracynge:

American Standard Version
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

Bible in Basic English
A time to take stones away and a time to get stones together; a time for kissing and a time to keep from kissing;

JPS Old Testament (1917)
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; {S}{S}{N}

King James Version (1611)
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together: a time to imbrace, and a time to refraine from imbracing.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
A tyme to cast away stones, and a tyme to gather stones together: A tyme to imbrace, and a tyme to refrayne from imbracyng.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
a time to throw stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to abstain from embracing;

English Revised Version
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Tyme to scatere stoonys, and tyme to gadere togidere; tyme to colle, and tyme to be fer fro collyngis.

Update Bible Version
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

Webster's Bible Translation
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

New English Translation
A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

New King James Version
A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;

New Living Translation
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away.

New Life Bible
There is a time to throw stones, and a time to gather stones; a time to kiss, and a time to turn from kissing.

New Revised Standard
a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
A time to cast away stones, and a time to heap up stones, - A time to embrace, and a time to be far from loving embrace;

Douay-Rheims Bible
A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather. A time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.

Revised Standard Version
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

Young's Literal Translation
A time to cast away stones, And a time to heap up stones. A time to embrace, And a time to be far from embracing.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.

Contextual Overview

¹ There's an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth: ²A right time for birth and another for death, A right time to plant and another to reap, A right time to kill and another to heal, A right time to destroy and another to construct, A right time to cry and another to laugh, A right time to lament and another to cheer, A right time to make love and another to abstain, A right time to embrace and another to part, A right time to search and another to count your losses, A right time to hold on and another to let go, A right time to rip out and another to mend, A right time to shut up and another to speak up, A right time to love and another to hate, A right time to wage war and another to make peace. ⁹But in the end, does it really make a difference what anyone does? I've had a good look at what God has given us to do—busywork, mostly. True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but he's left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he's coming or going. I've decided that there's nothing better to do than go ahead and have a good time and get the most we can out of life. That's it—eat, drink, and make the most of your job. It's God's gift.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

to cast: Joshua 4:3-9, Joshua 10:27, 2 Samuel 18:17, 2 Samuel 18:18, 2 Kings 3:25

a time to embrace: Exodus 19:15, 1 Samuel 21:4, 1 Samuel 21:5, Song of Solomon 2:6, Song of Solomon 2:7, Joel 2:16, 1 Corinthians 7:5

refrain from: Heb. be far from

Reciprocal: Genesis 31:46 - Gather

Cross-References

Genesis 3:2
The Woman said to the serpent, "Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. It's only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘Don't eat from it; don't even touch it or you'll die.'"

Genesis 3:6
When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she'd know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.

Genesis 3:7
Immediately the two of them did "see what's really going on"—saw themselves naked! They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves.

Genesis 3:10
He said, "I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid."

Genesis 3:13
"The serpent seduced me," she said, "and I ate."

Genesis 3:14
God told the serpent: "Because you've done this, you're cursed, cursed beyond all cattle and wild animals, Cursed to slink on your belly and eat dirt all your life. I'm declaring war between you and the Woman, between your offspring and hers. He'll wound your head, you'll wound his heel."

Genesis 3:22
God said, "The Man has become like one of us, capable of knowing everything, ranging from good to evil. What if he now should reach out and take fruit from the Tree-of-Life and eat, and live forever? Never—this cannot happen!"

Genesis 3:23
So God expelled them from the Garden of Eden and sent them to work the ground, the same dirt out of which they'd been made. He threw them out of the garden and stationed angel-cherubim and a revolving sword of fire east of it, guarding the path to the Tree-of-Life.

Exodus 5:2
Pharaoh said, "And who is God that I should listen to him and send Israel off? I know nothing of this so-called ‘ God ' and I'm certainly not going to send Israel off."

Exodus 20:7
No using the name of God, your God, in curses or silly banter; God won't put up with the irreverent use of his name.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together,.... To cast stones out of a field or vineyard where they are hurtful, and to gather them together to make walls and fences of, or build houses with; and may be understood both of throwing down buildings, as the temple of Jerusalem, so that not one stone was left upon another; of pouring out the stones of the sanctuary, and of gathering them again and laying them on one another; which was done when the servants of the Lord took pleasure in the stones of Zion, and favoured the dust thereof. Some understand this of precious stones, and of casting them away through luxury, wantonness, or contempt, and gathering them again: and it may be applied, as to the neglect of the Gentiles for a long time, and the gathering of those stones of which children were raised to Abraham; so of the casting away of the Jews for their rejection of the Messiah, and of the gathering of them again by conversion, when they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign on his land, Zechariah 9:16;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing: or "to be far from" g it; it may not only design conjugal embraces h, but parents embracing their children, as Jacob did his; and one brother embracing another, as Esau Jacob, and one friend embracing another; all which is very proper and agreeable at times: but there are some seasons so very calamitous and distressing, in which persons are obliged to drop such fondnesses: it is true, in a spiritual sense, of the embraces of Christ and believers, which sometimes are, and sometimes are not, enjoyed, Proverbs 4:8.

g עת לרחק "tempus elongandi se", Pagninus, Montanus; "tempus longe fieri", V. L. h "Optatos dedit amplexus", Virgil. Aeneid. 8. v. 405.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Stones may be regarded either as materials for building, or as impediments to the fertility of land (see 2 Kings 3:19, 2 Kings 3:25; Isaiah 5:2).

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Ecclesiastes 3:5. A time to cast away stones, - to gather stones, - to embrace, - to refrain —

"One while domestic cares abortive prove,

And then successful. Nature now invites

Connubial pleasures: but, when languid grown,

No less rejects."